Izzy (izzy_bella) wrote in omega_rpg, @ 2008-08-09 00:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | izzy, kieran |
Confessions of a teenage drama queen.
Who: Izzy and Kieran
Where: Old Ruins
What: Stoners and Surprises
When Izzy was in high school she and a couple of her friends spent a lot of time at the old town ruins. It was a good haunt for older kids, because little ones were too scared that there were ghosts around to come near it. The ambiance was pretty fucking cool - half the town had burned down way back when, and all the houses and buildings were slowly being reclaimed by nature.
It was where Izzy had set up her pot garden, in one of the houses that hadn't been destroyed by the fire. The whole place was old and rotting, and it smelled like her grandmother's closet, but the old clawfoot bathtub made for a hell of a planter, and there was a window that allowed enough light and worked up enough humidity to keep the little plants happy and healthy.
She ducked into the house, a messenger bag slung over her shoulder, planning to harvest a little bit of entertainment for later.
Kieran wasn't stalking Izzy - at least, not entirely. But he had to show her what one of his night raids had turned up - a kid's toy spiderman mask and fake webslinger. He put the mask on, strapped the glove to his hand, and turned on the 'webslinger' (a glorified flashlight). He followed her down to the ruins, looking for the perfect ambush spot. He almost pounced - but she'd ducked into an old house. "Crap," he said, and headed over to press his spider-maksed face against the window to try and peer in and see what she was doing inside.
Izzy picked her way through the house - there were spots in the floor that were so rotten that if you weren't careful you'd find yourself thigh deep - and made it to the bathroom. She began unpacking her tools and the bottles of water that she'd filled up before heading over and set to work.
Kieran peered in there long enough to realise she'd gone further into the house than he could see, so he made his way to the door and started following her in. Unfortunately, he didn't know about the rotten spots - and crashed right through one. "Crap! My spider senses have failed me again," he said, cursing as his webslinger went flying and his leg was now quite stuck in the hole. "Uhhhh... hey, Izzy!"
Izzy groaned as the familiar voice called out her name. She pushed herself from where she'd knelt and walked back out to the main area. At the sight of Kieran stuck in the floor, she crossed her arms and leaned on the door jam. "Have you discovered your power of phasing through solid objects?"
KIeran lifted up the spider-mask and gave her a sheepish grin. "I have discovered that said power is quite non-existant, much like the spider sense that should have warned me of this eminent danger."
"There's a shock," Izzy said, her tone conveying otherwise. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I wanted to show you my spider stuff- I found it on my latest expedition," Kieran said, now feeling quite foolish about it. "I also got something for you- it's in my pants. Pocket. Which right now, is pretty much below floor level so if you don't mind giving me a hand out of this predicament..." He looked down at the floor that had eaten him, and back up at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Please."
Izzy sighed and straightened, maneuvering over to the kid without any trouble. "I'm getting sick of saving your ass," she muttered as she took hold of him under the armpits and attempted to yank him out of the hole.
Kieran scrambled out of the hole with Izzy's assistance, and ducked his head. "It does seem to be a repeated trend," he agreed. He reached into his pocket, and offered over a small black jewelry box as a peace offering. "In gratitude for your lifesaving efforts."
Izzy blinked at the box but made no move to take it. "What is it?" she asked, sounding slightly suspicious.
"It's a severed finger - kidding, kidding." Kieran opened it up so she could see that it didn't contain anything creepy. It was in fact, a choker in the shape of some familar leaves. "I found it couple nights ago - thought you should have it, since you're pretty muc the Goddess of Pot and all..."
Izzy stared at the choker in surprise, her lips twitching up in the hint of a smile. "Uh... thanks," she said, not really sure what else to say, quite frankly surprised he'd even thought of her. Izzy took the necklace from the box and, pulling her hair over her shoulder, she fastened it around her neck.
"It looks awesome on you," Kieran said, flashing her a grin and a double-thumbs up (left hand still wearing a spidey glove). "It could be your holy symbol - you could use it to focus your powers of pot growth and joint rolling."
"You are so strange," Izzy said, shaking her head and heading back to the bathroom.
Kieran padded after, careful to only step where Izzy stepped. "Did you trap this place?" he asked, "Or am I just unlucky?"
"These houses are like, a hundred years old. They're falling apart," Izzy said, entering the bathroom where her little garden of plants was visible. "It's pretty handy to keep people out of here though."
"...." Kieran was rendered speechless when he saw all the plants. "Oh my... wow, this is like fifty million times better than Lilly's garden. Fuck fresh food, this is what we need to survive the apocalypse." He reverently reached out to touch one of the green leaves.
"Careful there champ," Izzy said. "Don't fondle the merchandise." She picked up the tools she'd set down when Kieran had called out to her, and kneeled back down, setting to work.
"I'm not fondling it, I'm just touching the hand of God," Kieran said, but he stopped doing it anyhow. He watched Izzy work a while, then knelt down next to her. "Can I help?" he asked.
Izzy's eyes stayed on the plants. "Look for the ripe buds," she told him holding one out in the palm of her hand for him to see. She then showed him how to harvest them, obviously having been doing it for quite some time.
Kieran hadn't much experience in growing his own, but he certainly could identify a ripe bud. He pinched them off of the plants where he found them and offered them over to Izzy. He was proud of himself for having the willpower to not pocket a single one. "So how long you been growing these?" Kieran asked as they harvested. "This is a pretty sweet crop."
"Couple years," Izzy replied as she worked. "My boyfriend and I took off to New York one weekend. Came back with my first set of seeds and a tattoo."
Kieran looked pained. "Aw, shit - you've got a boyfriend?"
Izzy was too engrossed in the plants to look up and notice his face. She shook her head. "He was a senior when I was a sophomore. Broke up when he went to college." She paused a minute. "Huh. I guess he's probably... you know."
"Sweet!" Kieran said, pumping a fist in the air, then realizing that probably wasn't polite. "I mean, uh, that's too bad. Poor guy. Hope he didn't suffer."
Izzy looked at him, shaking her head and letting out a small laugh. It was kind of sad to think of Rick being dead - she'd liked the guy well enough - but Kieran's reaction was both surprising and, she had to admit, kind of funny. "Yeah, you sound real broken up about it," she said.
"Well, I didn't know him - and besides, if he broke up with you for higher education, he may well have been a douche," Kieran said. He glanced down at the pot before them. "Not to mention... I can't say I'm exactly unhappy to learn that you're single."
Izzy finally stopped working on her garden and looked at him fully, long enough to blurt out, "Seriously?" She kind of thought that maybe he'd been giving that vibe, but she'd been steadfastly ignoring it. Plus she was totally mean to him three quarters of the time they spent together.
Kieran nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean, I know I don't have much of a chance without my superpowers, but... y'know, maybe someday if I get infinitely cooler and I construct a monument more monumental than canhenge you'll dislike me less. Then my plan is pretty much to wear you down from there - and/or to pick off the rest of the eligible male population in a Highlander-esque fashion because there can be only one and I want that one to be me."
There was something stupidly endearing about the kid, Izzy couldn't deny it. Even if he was a total spaz case. "You wouldn't have to get infinitely cooler," she finally said. She paused before adding, "A little cooler."
"Oh yeah? How little?" Kieran asked, then broke into a wide grin. "If it involves getting a haircut - I'm for it, but I can't cut my own hair because the last time I tried it was a complete disaster. I looked like Pee Wee Herman for weeks."
Izzy rolled her eyes. "I don’t care if you cut your hair."
Kieran looked up at her, a suddenly serious expression on his face. "So what do I have to do, then? Because I'll do it..."
Izzy sat back on her knees, unable to believe she was actually entertaining the thought. "Shit, Spidey, I don't know. Why the hell would you like me anyway?"
"Because you don't even need super powers to rock the world," Kieran said. "You're funny, sharp, and pretty damn smart. And you've got a green thumb for all the right plants. Not to mention, you saved my life - twice or so. And you feed me Cheetos. Oh, and you're beautiful - but that's just icing on the cake, I'm not that shallow."
Izzy just stared at him, his words completely unexpected. And pretty sweet. Ugh, still. Izzy wasn't looking for a boyfriend. She wasn't looking for anybody. All she needed was herself. "I need a smoke," she said, bagging up the weed, planning to dry it later.
Kieran tried not to look as crestfallen as he felt. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to be cool about it. "Yeah, me too."
He didn't do a very good job of hiding it though. She got to her feet, brushing off her jeans. "Good," she said. "Come on, there's a good spot in the old graveyard to smoke up - nobody ever comes out here."
"Smoking a bone in the boneyard- I like it," Kieran said. He started to follow her out, careful to only step where she stepped again - not wanting to repeat his earlier fall from grace.
When they made it out of the house, Izzy led them through the ruins over to a large somewhat creepy graveyard. It had been completely untouched by the fire, but a lot of the graves had crumbled with time. She made her way between the graves, heading over to a large mausoleum in the center.
"Creeptastic how it's all untouched while the rest of the old town is a burned out shithole," Kieran said, following her to the mausoleum. "You're not suddenly going to go all Dracula and want to suck my blood, are you?"
"You have a really overactive imagination," Izzy replied, pushing the door to the mausoleum open. It was dim inside, a small amount of light streaming in from a couple little windows. In the center of the place was a giant cement tomb that Izzy sat down on, opening up her bag and pulling out some ready to smoke weed.
"That'd be because I'm poor and imagination is free," Kieran said. He glanced at the tomb, checking it out before settling onto it to see whose dead body was being his couch.
"Well, nobody's poor anymore," Izzy pointed out. She took out some rolling papers, and set to work making them a roach. "It's some old rich guy," she said, referring to the person they were sitting on when she noticed Kieran looking. "He was like a big deal a million years ago. Founded the town or something."
"And now he's a corpse in a tomb under two people who are about to smoke some very wicked pot that was grown in his town," Kieran said, giving a sage nod. "I like that poetic justice."
"I know right?" Izzy said, pulling out her lighter. She lit up and took a hit before passing it to Kieran. "Totally forgotten, like the rest of this place."
Kieran took the joint from her, taking a long toke and half-closing his eyes from the pleasure of it. "Good shit as usual," he muttered, then passed it back. "Yeah- Normalville. What a joke, right? Like there's anything normal about it, especially now."
"No, it's about as normal as it comes," Izzy said. "That's the fucking problem. And now there's nowhere to run."
"... I ran away from here once," Kieran said quietly. He didn't know why, but he felt like he should tell Izzy the truth. It was suddenly important to him.
Izzy took a nice long hit, then passed the blunt over. "I kind of thought so," she admitted. "When I found you outside of town you said something about coming home. But you were puking all over the place so I let it go." She paused for a few moments. "What's your real name?" Everyone in town pretty much knew everyone else, even if it was just in passing. She was sure she would have, at the very least, heard of a Kieran.
Kieran closed his eyes, and took a long drag. He didn't want to bogart it or anything, but he held on to the joint to have something to do with his hands while he talked. It was painful, thinking about who he'd been before. "My name was Adam," he said, his voice still quiet and somewhat distant. "Adam Carole." He took a second puff before passing it back.
Now the name Carole, that she recognized. There was a big family of them if she recalled correctly. "Shit - is your brother Eddie? He was a year ahead of me in high school."
Kieran nodded, looking down. "Yeah, that'd be my brother. I don't know where he wound up - him and Charlie, they left town before I did. Got the hell out of here..."
"Why did you leave?" she asked.
"Because I'm a fucking coward," Kieran said, with more than a little self-loathing. "I couldn't handle what was happening here, and I ran off like a little bitch because I thought things would be better elsewhere. Whole world's shit though- doesn't matter where you go, you can't escape that."
"Well, if it wasn't before, it definitely is now," Izzy replied with a shrug. "Where did you go?"
"Pitsburg, Philly... Atlantic City for a while, then back up..." Kieran shrugged a bit. "Hopped trains, hitched, hooked up with people and did a lot of drugs. Slept on the streets, in alleys, in cheaper hotels than ours, and in more than a few back seats..."
Izzy was quiet a moment while she let that sink in. "Was it worth it?" she asked. "Was whatever going on here that bad that it was worth it to live like that?"
Kieran rubbed his forehead. "You know.. I don't really think about it. I try to keep Adam and his life separate from Kieran and... shit, I don't know, really. Half the time I'm not sure who I am from day to day. I'm just some messed up kid with no future - hah, kinda literally now."
“That pretty much describes us all now,” Izzy said, laughing a little, mostly from the pot.
"What do you think happened?" Kieran asked, suddenly serious. "Why Normaville? Of all the places to survive an apocalypse- why here?"
Izzy shrugged. "They think it has something to do with us being in a valley. Like the radiation and shit can't get to us."
"But what about all the weirdos showing up in town? Not me, I mean the other weirdos... where the hell are they coming from? It's just... freaky," Kieran said.
"What weirdos?" Izzy said, cocking her head curiously. "Oh you mean that bullshit from the town meeting about people popping through wormholes? Come on."
"Yeah- that sounds wild but- why would they lie about it?" Kieran asked. He contemplated this for a moment. "Okay, maybe if they were aliens or some shit and they didn't want us to know. But... I think they're telling the truth, 'cause some of those people look mighty freaky."
Izzy snorted. "Like who?" she asked. "I haven't met any space jumpers or whatever."
"Like- well, did you see that dude with the pale skin and the blonde hair? He was looking at me the other day in this really weird way," Kieran said. "And I could have sworn I saw someone with wings this one time - I didn't stick around long enough to see for sure, but it looked like wings to me - and I wasn't high before you ask."
"I'm pale and I look at you weird all the time," Izzy said. "And a guy with wings?" she added dubiously.
"Yeah- honest to Bob, I saw it. Wings and shit," Kieran said, crossing his heart. "Well, at least I think. It was at a distance. Still, I think we should start checking some of this shit out."
"And doing what?"
"And make sure they're not the cause of it - or aliens here to give us the anal probe," Kieran said, as if this were obvious.
Izzy started laughing. "You are so paranoid. Why don't you go talk to that Quinn guy if you're worried? He seemed to be willing to babble on about whatever the heck they think it is that's bringing people here."
"Because he's One of Them," Kieran said, then pondered. "Hm, yeah, okay - maybe I should though. Would you come with me?"
She shrugged. "Why not? My days aren't overly filled with activities."
"Also, I think you should let me take you on a date," Kieran said.
Izzy's head turned to look at him in the dim light. He wasn't a bad kid, really. And if nothing else he livened things up. "One date, Sparky," she said. "Okay?"
"Okay! Give me a few days, so I can get everything planned out right," Kieran said, grinning widely. "I promise you won't be sorry- it'll rock."
Izzy simply shook her head, smiling slightly. She wasn't sure she wanted to think about what would take him a few days to plan. "Okay."